As competition in an industry increases, companies attempt to reduce costs while improving customer service. For example, insurance companies work to improve service to policyholders while reducing the costs associated with all aspects of its insurance business. Insurance companies may wish to reduce the time required to perform underwriting activities to improve overall operating efficiency. In order to increase operating efficiency, a company can employ computer systems and software tools to analyze various tasks performed by employees.
One way to evaluate activities is by developing an employee survey. By understanding how employees spend their time, the company can determine the costs associated with specific tasks or activities performed by the employees. For example, an insurance company could survey its employees to determine the cost of performing underwriting activities.
The utility of the survey results depends on the survey questions and the accuracy of employee responses. It is therefore desirable to develop a method that provides flexibility in creating a survey and a user-friendly mechanism for administering the survey. Further, when evaluating a specific aspect of a company's activities, such as underwriting activities of an insurance company, it is beneficial to evaluate the activities in view of relevant categories of tasks associated with the activity. Such categories provide greater flexibility in analyzing data and generating reports.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of and system for evaluating underwriting activities.